


Sunset

by spacekinney



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 13:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacekinney/pseuds/spacekinney
Summary: Tony Stark dies. Happy  and Morgan eat cheeseburgers.One month later, Harley Keener and James Rhodes opt for cheesesteaks.





	Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Major Avengers: Endgame spoilers below!
> 
> I watched the movie again last night and apparently I cope by writing sad Harley fic. Enjoy :)

“Harley? Honey, someone’s at the door for you.”

Harley frowned. Shit, had he forgotten an appointment he’d set up with someone? “Who is it?” he called up the basement steps to his mom. Harley twisted around to see if he could see anyone at the top of the stairs. As he did so, Nate picked himself off his lap. “Is it Miss Porter?”

“No, it’s—” His mom’s voice got significantly quieter as she asked, “What did you say your name was, again?”

“Colonel James Rhodes, ma’am. I’m a friend...I was a friend of Tony Stark.” Immediately, hearing that it was Mr. Rhodes, Harley leaped off the couch. He turned to Nate, who nodded and gave Harley a quick kiss on the cheek before making his way up the stairs. Harley followed suit, but while Nate slipped past Mr. Rhodes, Harley stopped right in front of him. Sure enough, he wore his formal air force attire, complete with the prosthetics attached to his legs. “Hi,” said Harley breathlessly.

“Hey, Harley. You got a minute?”

Harley could feel his heart sinking in his chest. Had something happened? Were Morgan and Miss Pepper alright? If something had happened to either of them...it had only been a _month_ since… “Yeah, sure,” Harley managed to say. Then he pointed behind Mr. Rhodes to his garage. “Out there.” He didn’t want to burden his mom.

A few minutes later, both men had settled into place in Harley’s garage, with Mr. Rhodes on the couch and Harley perched uncomfortably on the stool in front of him. While Mr. Rhodes looked around, taking in all of the renovations Harley had made, Harley picked at his fingernail uncomfortably. “He was proud, you know.”

Harley looked up when Mr. Rhodes spoke. “He was really proud of what you did here. He was a little pissed when you declined your MIT admission…” They both laughed softly. “I’ve never heard the phrase ‘little shit’ used with so much pride before. Well, until you tricked him into thinking that you accepted that Hammer internship. But he was really proud.”

Harley nodded. “Thanks.” He almost said more, but the words died in his throat, and an uncomfortable silence followed until he spoke again. “Did you, uh—did something happen?”

Mr. Rhodes’ eyes widened for half a second before he shook his head. “No. Nothing like that. No. I just came...to check on you.”

 _What?_ “Really?” The question came out of his mouth reflexively. He’d met Mr. Rhodes more than a few times, but they weren’t nearly as close as Harley and Mr. Stark were. Past tense.

“Yeah. Peter’s on a school trip in Europe, and Happy went with him to keep an eye out. So I thought it would be the perfect chance to check in with you. See how you’ve been.”

Harley just cracked a smile and rolled his eyes. “I always forget Peter goes to one of those fancy science schools. Trip to _Europe?_ At my high school we’d be lucky if we got a trip to the lake.”

Thankfully, Mr. Rhodes laughed, instead of pointing out Harley’s deflection. “Heh. Yeah, it’s crazy. I think Happy said they’d be in Venice or something? My high school just took trips to the Constitution Center every year, so I’m right with ya.”

Harley tilted his head to the side. “You’re from Philly?”

“Born and raised. You ever been?”

Harley shook his head. “I’ve seen Rocky, though, if that counts.”

Mr. Rhodes laughed. “Oh man, you haven’t seen anything. Come on.” Then he stood up. “Wanna visit?”

Harley’s jaw dropped. “ _Now?_ ”

“Yeah, why not? Your mom said you didn’t have any more clients scheduled for today. Plus, you can try a steak sandwich.”

“Oh, cheesesteaks? I’ve had those!” Harley said, already standing up and starting to smile. “They sell them at the diner Mom works at.”

The face that Mr. Rhodes made after Harley had finished speaking made Harley reach for the trash can. “Mr. Rhodes? Are you about to throw up?”

“Maybe. I’m surprised you haven’t, you’re the one eating backwoods Tennessee diner cheesesteak.”

“Hey!” Harley feigned offense as they exited the garage. “If you think this is the backwoods, go five miles east. I’m pretty sure they actually have to count squirrels in their population to get it all the way up to seven thousand!”

* * *

 

Four hours later, Harley and Mr. Rhodes sat side-by-side at the top of the art museum steps. Harley was gnawing on his cheesesteak—which he had only begrudgingly admitted was delicious, thank you—and he was suddenly struck by the sheer number of _people_ that he could see on the streets below. “It’s kinda weird,” he said without thinking, “how crowded it is now. Again. Like...the lack of crowds was weird, but I guess after a few years of it I got used to it. As much as I could be.”

Mr. Rhodes nodded. “I get it. Everyone was gone for so long, and now they’re back like nothing happened.”

“But something did happen.” Harley turned to Mr. Rhodes as he felt his eyes welling up. Again. God, hadn’t he dehydrated himself by now? “Maybe they don’t know it, but—”

“They know it.” Mr. Rhodes turned to him. “Everybody knows it. His name was—still is—at the top of every news article and in every newspaper headline and late-night TV report. There are memorials on every city block. Schools and libraries are being renamed. Believe me, they know.”

Harley wiped at his cheek with the end of his sleeve. “Should that comfort me?” It was a genuine question.

Mr. Rhodes sighed, and broke his eye contact with Harley to look down. “I’ll let you know when it starts comforting me.”

Harley sniffled, and all of a sudden he was a kid again. Just a dumb eleven-year-old kid, ready to immediately imprint on any man who he could vaguely imagine filling some kind of fatherly role. “Do you have kids?” he asked Mr. Rhodes in a way that was completely, not at all related to what he had just been thinking about. Not in the slightest.

“A niece. Lila.” There was a long pause before Mr. Rhodes did some kind of half-shrug, half-waving gesture. “Two nieces. Lila and Morgan.”

Harley’s heart twisted at the mention of Morgan. “Everyone got their families back. Except us,” he commented.

“Except us.”

Mr. Rhodes’ words hung in the lengthy silence that followed. Harley watched the sun set, filling the sky with red and gold tones that were far too vibrant for what he was feeling. Mr. Rhodes had been right—everyone knew. And apparently that included the universe and the sun as well. He was about to speak up, to mention that he should be getting back home soon, when Mr. Rhodes beat him to it. “You know—you’re always welcome, you know. To call me. If you need to talk.”

Harley looked at Mr. Rhodes’ face, and it nearly broke him. The reflection of the sunset stained the trails of the quiet tears that had slipped down his face, almost as an echo of the hero who had been lost. The shining light contrasted with Mr. Rhodes’ dark skin, and with his hard-set jaw and determined expression. Mr. Rhodes had been strong for everyone—for Miss Pepper, for Morgan, for Happy and Peter and now Harley, but he had lost his best friend and his brother. He was feeling it just as much as anyone, if not harder.

No words could convey Harley’s emotions at that moment, so he just nodded, feeling his own tears start back up again. “You too,” he whispered. He sniffled and wiped his cheek again. “If you, uh, ever open up an extra slot in that list of kids. Kid-types.” Harley nodded and looked back out to the horizon, seeing the last sliver of the sun being swallowed by the skyscrapers. “I wouldn’t mind trying it on.”

Mr. Rhodes was giving Harley an unreadable expression, and Harley started internally panicking. “If you don’t want to—”

He was cut off by Mr. Rhodes leaning in and wrapping him in a tight embrace. It was a little surprising, given that they didn’t really know each other all that well, but…

Harley returned the hug, remembering that time Mr. Stark had told him that all his good parts “came from Rhodey.” Harley closed his eyes.

They lost. The universe had won but Miss Pepper and Morgan and Happy and Peter had lost. Harley and Mr. Rhodes had lost. And yet, because he was _the great Tony Stark_ , defiant and strong, he would live. His family carried pieces of his big, caring heart in their own and _he would live_. Miss Pepper carried his love. Mr. Rhodes carried his goodness. Every single person in the universe carried his blessing of life.

Harley didn’t know what he carried, but he knew he carried it. He passed it onto each occupant of Rose Hill who came to his garage for car repairs. He passed it onto his mom and his sister and their own broken family. But most importantly, he carried it right next to his own heart and because of that, Tony Stark would live. _He would live_.


End file.
